"Any Spanish team is always going to have the ball for periods of time," added the Arsenal player.

"So you've just got to make sure that you don't switch off and try not to get frustrated as well.

"You started to see a bit of frustration getting to the Spanish players - a couple of bookings. It wasn't quite happening for them because we kept on breaking them down.

Phil McNulty's blog

It was a night when Capello openly accepted England's limitations - and rightly so. He made it clear in his pre-match briefing that no-one could take Spain on at their own game. He knew to do so would be the equivalent of a tactical suicide note